The new Sunset Park Pickleball Complex is seen Thursday, May 6, 2021. The complex is one of the nation’s largest, with 24 regulation courts plus player-friendly amenities over about three acres in the southeast valley park.
Tuesday, May 11, 2021 | 2 a.m.
The new pickleball complex at Sunset Park had a packed tournament schedule before opening this month.
That included: a locals-only, sold-out Commissioner’s Cup to christen the courts immediately after they opened last weekend; the Sin City Round Robin in June; the Banana Split Classic in July; the Nevada Senior Games and a veterans tournament in the fall.
But perhaps the most prestigious competition: the 2021 USA Pickleball Mountain Regional Championship in late May. That means that tournament, a qualifier for the national championships, is no longer contested in St. George, Utah.
Previously, many of the 1,300 players who participated in the event would fly into Las Vegas and drive two hours into Utah. Now, they’ll spent their money in Clark County.
“Las Vegas is a place people love to visit,” despite the dip in tourism over the past year, said County Commissioner Jim Gibson, whose district includes Sunset Park. But Las Vegas is getting its momentum back as the country turns a corner on COVID-19, and proponents of the new pickleball facility see it as another entry in a long list of local attractions.
Pickleball is a mixture of racket sports, with the movement of tennis, table tennis and badminton but at a lower intensity. It’s played on a surface similar to a scaled-down tennis court, with a lower net, a whiffle-like ball and a lightweight paddle similar to the one used in racquetball.
It’s also been on a meteoric rise for years.
Gibson knew little of pickleball in 2017 when he was approached by John Sloan — director of the Southern Nevada Pickleball Club — and his late friend Tom Reilly about the county’s commitment to put $77 million toward park improvements. There would be value in a complex specifically for pickleball, they stressed.
And so the idea was born to construct the complex, which is one of the nation’s largest with 24 regulation courts plus player-friendly amenities over about 3 acres in the southeast valley park.
Gibson knew of courts around town that were largely on repurposed tennis and basketball courts, and underutilized roller hockey rinks. But Gibson, a valley native and member of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority Board of Directors, knew they could make a splash with an over-the-top complex.
“Once I learned what it meant for us … we need something like this to distinguish us,” he said.
The county broke ground on the courts last year, activating what was once open grass just south of the tennis courts and between the baseball diamonds. The pickleball complex is part of Gibson’s commitment to revitalize the 185-acre park, the largest park in the county’s system.
“This will fit with everything we do here,” he said.
According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, pickleball participation grew more than 20% between 2019 and 2020; the sport’s governing body, USA Pickleball, says it’s grown almost 50% in the last four years.
Close to 3.5 million people of all ages play — the national championship awards titles to players as young as 8 and into the open-ended 80+ class, in singles, doubles and mixed doubles, and play is easily adapted for people with disabilities.
That unlimited demographic, and the friendly, welcoming culture, make the sport appealing, Sloan said.
“It’s a sport you can play at any age,” the 80-year-old Sloan said. “I can’t think of any other sport where you can play any other person and have parity. It’s the only sport I know that I can play with my grandkids and they’ll have fun playing with their grandpa.”
There were already roughly 200 courts throughout Clark County, according to USA Pickleball. That includes gated communities and on the rooftop of the Plaza in downtown, with its 12 permanent courts and another championship court that can be converted into four temporary courts.
But nothing compares to what was built at Sunset Park.
The courts have the space needed to chase and lunge for balls, north-south orientation to keep players from squinting into the sun, a sound system, lighting for nighttime play, electrical access for food trucks, a shaded wraparound walkway for socializing between rounds and bleacher seats. There’s also a quadrant of championship courts, set off individually by fences for optimal focus during the top games at tournaments.
Patti Chess, a volunteer ambassador for USA Pickleball and Southern Nevada Pickleball Club officer who teaches the sport, said her home courts at Durango Hills Park can have waits up to 40 people deep.
Scott Whitehead, another local USA Pickleball ambassador, said the community sports promoters have “done so well we can’t find a court that’s empty.”
Sunset Park should lighten some of that pressure.
“Do I think the courts are gonna be in very large demand?” Gibson said. “Yes, I do.”
